'Alien: Romulus' review: A scarily good return to form for the Aliens franchise

In space, even playing 'Whack-a-mole' can make you scream. — Photos: 20th Century Fox

THE beauty of the Alien franchise is that it has always allowed room for distinctive filmmakers to play with their own aesthetics and themes.

Ridley Scott’s taut, philosophical space-thriller Alien gave way to the sweaty, militarized machismo of James Cameron’s Aliens. David Fincher brought industrial Soviet aesthetics and psychosexual tension from his Madonna music videos to the stylish Alien 3 (though he disavowed his directorial debut); even the darkly whimsical French auteur Jean-Pierre Jeunet put his quirky stamp on Alien Resurrection, before Scott returned for the bloody, brooding prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.